The Daily Blog

Oct 10

(Oct. 10) — Like something out of a sci-fi movie, did alien particles find their way inside a space probe that landed on an asteroid and returned to Earth?

That question was raised last week by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, according to Japanese news agencies. Scientists reportedly found small, odd particles inside Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft, which returned to Earth in June after a seven-year, 3-billion-mile journey that took it to an asteroid and back.

Hayabusa left Earth in 2003, destined to become the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, one of the many small, rocky objects found in space generally between the planets Mars and Jupiter.After a more than two-year voyage, Hayabusa spent 30 minutes on the surface of an asteroid — dubbed Itokawa — and collected small samples of asteroid dust.Hayabusa’s mission was to get enough asteroid samples to help scientists learn more about the origins of our solar system. NASA researchers are helping JAXA in the examination of the spacecraft’s powder payload.

Whether the asteroid dust contains an unknown extraterrestrial life form may not be known for some time, as the analysis of the material will continue for several months.

“Although we have not yet analyzed the makeup of the particles, I personally think the particles include sand removed from the Itokawa asteroid,” said JAXA scientist Toshifumi Mukai

Recent electron microscope analysis detected some particles that display different characteristics from the dust already picked up by the spacecraft.

Sep 24

Amid Tension, Japan Is Releasing Chinese Captain.

TOKYO — Japanese authorities said on Friday that they will release the captain of a Chinese trawler whose arrest two weeks ago near islands claimed by China and Japan had caused growing tensions between the two Asian powers. Japanese prosecutors said they decided not to press charges against the captain, identified as Zhan Qixiong, 41, who was detained on Sept. 8 after his boat collided with Japanese Coast

The arrest had sent Japan’s ties with China to their lowest point in years. China reacted angrily to the arrest by cutting off ministerial-level talks, with Premier Wen Jiabao threatening further unspecified actions if he was not released.

While appealing for calm, Japanese leaders had initially stood firm in saying that their country’s laws applied to the captain, who was detained in waters administered by Japan but claimed by China and also Taiwan.

It was unclear if Tokyo had decided to give in to China’s demands, or even if central government officials had any hand in the captain’s release. However, prosecutors on Ishigaki island, where the captain was being held, did cite diplomatic considerations in their decision not to indict him on charges of obstructing officials on duty.

“Considering the effect on the people of our nation and on China-Japan relations, we decided that it was not appropriate to continue the investigation,” the prosecutors said in a statement. Guard vessels that were pursuing him near the disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Facing growing nationalist outrage at the arrest, authorities in Beijing had been raising the pressure on Tokyo for the captain’s unconditional release. Earlier this week, Chinese officials said Mr. Wen would probably not meet Japan’s prime minister, Naoto Kan, during a United Nations development conference in New York.

China has argued that the issue is one for diplomacy, not Japan’s legal system. Known as Senkaku in Japanese or Diaoyu in Chinese, the islands have been in dispute for decades, but until now Japan has usually turned back Chinese vessels that approached too closely.

Sentiment in Japan, however, has hardened against China in recent years, as Chinese warships have made more frequent forays into Japanese waters, including an incident in April when a Chinese helicopter buzzed a Japanese warship.

Shortly after the release was announced, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it would send a chartered plane to bring captain Zhan Qixiong back home. “I reiterate that any kind of so-called legal proceedings taken against the Chinese captain are illegal and invalid,” a spokeswoman said, according to a report on the ministry’s Web site.

In a commentary on the release, the official Xinhua news agency quoted experts saying that releasing the captain “is the precondition for Sino-Japanese relations to return to normal.”

Chinese analysts said the move could help ease tension between the two economic partners. Wang Xiangsui, a foreign policy analyst at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said China especially objected to Japan using its domestic laws to deal with the captain. This implied that the territories were Japanese and not subject to negotiation.

“This was a move that Japan had to make or China would have taken further steps,” Mr. Wang said. “Now the two sides can discuss this more calmly.”

The most recent flare-up comes as China faces disputes with its neighbors to the south over control of islands in the South China Sea. It has also objected to American military exercises in waters near Korea.

The Japanese prosecutors’ decision followed news in Beijing on Thursday that four Japanese citizens had been arrested for videotaping military installations.

The report by the official Xinhua news agency said four Japanese citizens were detained at a military base near the city of Shijiazhuang, about 190 miles southwest of Beijing.

“Currently, the case is being investigated,” said a statement issued by authorities and carried on the Web site of China Daily, a government-controlled newspaper. Japan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that four of its citizens were being held.

The four being detained are employees of the Fujita construction firm, a spokesman for the company said.

It was unclear whether those arrests were linked to the detention of the captain.

The last communication Fujita had with the workers was a cell phone text message from one of them on Tuesday that read, “help,” said a company spokesman, Yoshiaki Onodera.

The employees and their interpreter, a Chinese national, were in Hebei to research possible sites to excavate for weapons left behind by the Japanese army during World War II, Mr. Onodera said. The Japanese government has been funding a program to remove such weapons in China and Fujita is one of the contractors.

Economic ties between the countries — the world’s second- and third-largest economies — appeared to be fraying over the matter. Some metals traders say China has halted sales of rare earth metals to Japan, although China denies this.

Sep 22

Paris Hilton can’t catch a break. After pleading guilty Monday to two misdemeanors in her Las Vegas cocaine case, Japanese officials have delayed Hilton’s entry into the country, the socialite’s spokeswoman said. The 29-year-old star was stopped by immigration authorities, who are considering refusing Hilton entry into Japan because of her drug charges and sentence.

She was scheduled to appear at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday to promote her fashion line, but that appearance was apparently canceled. Hilton was forced to cancel her tour and returned home when she was denied entry at Tokyo’s airport Wednesday following a drug violation in the U.S. — running afoul of strict Japanese laws that have tripped up celebrities from Paul McCartney to Diego Maradona.

“I’m going back home, and I look forward to coming back to Japan in the future,” a smiling Hilton told reporters before departing on her private jet.
The trip had been planned before Hilton’s arrest last month in Las Vegas after an officer found a small amount of cocaine in her purse. She pleaded guilty Monday to drug possession and obstructing an officer and was placed on informal probation for one year.

The terms of her sentence did not restrict travel overseas.

Her publicist, Dawn Miller, said Hilton plans to make the trips at a later date.

“Paris is very disappointed and fought hard to keep her business commitments and see her fans, but she is forced to postpone her commitments in Asia,” she said in a statement. “Paris understands and respects the rules and laws of the immigration authorities in Japan and fully wishes to cooperate with them.”

On Monday, Hilton pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges stemming from her arrest for drug possession last month at a Las Vegas hotel-casino. Hilton will serve a year of probation and must complete a drug abuse program, pay a $2,000 fine and serve 200 hours of community service.